YAY! First Dwarf List of our Modern Era-- 2.5k

[Raindog]

Well, that is one cool conversion  

[Munkie]

Thanks! I wanted something with a little more form than the flying bucket that is the gyrocopter, but looked paired down enough to not be confused with the bomber.

[Iraf]

I don't know if you wrote up your list quite right or are misinterpreting rune builds. Both runesmiths cant have a single spellbreaking. Also ill double check when I get home but I believe the ring counts as a magic talismam which prevents you from taking a runic talisman on the runesmith with the ring since runicitems follow all rules for magic items.

[Lord Hanaur]

apology for the dumb question but is this (2500) the standard size?  Not 2250?

 

Caught my attention, thought I'd ask...

[JMGraham]

First off, that gyrocopter is brilliant. That's the way they should have designed it in the first place!

 

Second, I've got to say, I have [big bad swear word]-all idea of how to handle this with Wood Elves. Gotta figure out something to do against lots of war machines and shooting!

 

143: Thane (General) w/ Runic axe: RoSpeed; shield; runic armor: 2x RoFortitude, RoIron

188: Thane w/ Shield; Battle Standard: MRoGrungni, Strollaz' Rune

128: Runesmith w/ Shield; runic armor: RoStone; Fiery Ring of Thori; runic talsiman: Rune of Spellbreaking

98: Runesmith w/ Shield; runic armor: RoStone; runic talisman: Rune of Spellbreaking

 

140: 10 Thunderers w/ Shields, musician

150: 10 Quarrelers w/ Great weapons, musician

405: 25 Longbeards w/ Shields, full command; 2x RoSlowness

 

440: 25 Hammerers w/ Shields, full command; Strollaz' Rune

145: Cannon w/ Rune of Forging

150: Cannon w/ Rune of Forging, Rune of Burning

100: Gyrocopter w/ Vanguard

80: Gyrocopter

 

170: Organ Gun w/ Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Forging

160: 10 Irondrakes w/ Musician

[Munkie]

I don't know if you wrote up your list quite right or are misinterpreting rune builds. Both runesmiths cant have a single spellbreaking. Also ill double check when I get home but I believe the ring counts as a magic talismam which prevents you from taking a runic talisman on the runesmith with the ring since runicitems follow all rules for magic items.

Oops, yeah the second Runesmith has rune of furnace too. Will edit when not on smartphone.

 

By Jove, I think you're right about the ring! I don't have my book handy, but I think I got it in my head that it was was an enchanted item (probably because the difference has always seemed arbitrary to me). Hmmm.... Maybe another 2 irondrakes?

[Munkie]

Nope, nvm. The ring is indeed an enchanted item, so no problem there. Grudge recorded against Iraf for falsely accusing me of cheating ;)

[Iraf]

Challenge!

[Iraf]

Also, mistakes are not cheating. Cheating is knowingly making mistakes ;)

[Munkie]

Good point. But you can't erase chiseled stone, so the grudge stands as recorded. Honor demands recompense!

[MexicanNinja]

Good point. But you can't erase chiseled stone, so the grudge stands as recorded. Honor demands recompense!

But you can break it with a War Hydra!

[Munkie]

Hydras are good for nothing but target practice.

[Munkie]

I played my 3rd battle with the new dwarves against Lizardmen. We played Meeting Engangement. Let me rant in advance: I don't like most of the Fantasy missions and I really hope they change it up in 9th ed. I don't like that there are missions where your army doesn't act like it's supposed to. Missions should be designed to give you a goal and test whoever is best at accomplishing that goal. Creating an obstacle, and seeing who is best at overcoming that obstacle does not a good mission make. But I digress.

 

My opponent had:

Slann w/ Loremaster (high) and some other gear that didn't really come up (probably a scroll)

lvl 1 priest w/ heavens

1 skrox unit w/ 3 krox and many many skanks (30?)

2 units of 25ish Saurus

2 units of 10 skink skirmishers

1 unit of 20ish TG

Ancient Steg

Troglodon w/ channel changer

2 units of 1 salamander

 

So my hammerers and one of my cannons decided to wait out the start of the battle (grrr...) and his skink priest did as well. I rolled up hatred for the whole army again (I haven't not had that yet!)

 

The game started off pretty unimpressively on turn 1. I had no shots with my cannon on his monsters (we had a lot of LoS blocking terrain) so it instead wounded a kroxigor. The rest of my shooting was firing long range at skirmishers and so wasn't terribly effective. In turn his shooting was pretty unimpressive. Despite getting 2 fairly solid shots from the salamanders, he didn't do all that much damage to the Longbeards.

 

On turn 2, my hammerers showed up, and tried to line up for a sweet flank charge on a block of saurus moving behind my lines to my war machines. But I was an idiot and should've just accepted the charge. Since I set up on the flank he was able to just barely march out of my charge arc. Then he got Walk Between Worlds to zoom all the way over to my war machines. The hammerers were left out in the cold. My cannon killed the steg and I shot one kroxigor down (and a few skinks) with irondrakes. Gyrocopters were dropping bombs on sallies but failed to take care of them.

 

My opponent charged at my Longbeards with his TG but failed the charge. When he cast Walk Between Worlds, the Slann did the str 10 template and killed a chunk of TG--not good when sitting in front of Longbeards with 2 thanes and a runesmith. The salamanders again both flamed the Longbeards and did some damage but I still had about 3 ranks or so left. Man that Rune of Grungni was awesome for me. His skrox unit charged the irondrakes but I was able to kill another krox and reduce the last to 1 wound before he struck and killed 1. Skinks did nothing.

 

On my turn 3, my cannon decided to come in, I used it to block the saurus from charging my more important organ gun. I charged into the TG with the Longbeards. My cannon lined up a shot on a salamander and troglodon and killed both! My Irondrakes killed the last krox and a handfull of skinks. The skinks did nothing. My Longbeards killed all but 3 of the remaining TG. Dwarves with hatred on the charge are just brutal!

 

On his turn 3, he charged the cannon that just wandered in from the board edge. Out of the 6 saurus swinging, he killed one crewmember and I did nothing back. But I held due to stubborn. I felt bad about that, they should've stomped me flat! My irondrakes killed a few more skinks and they did nothing but still held due to being steadfast and close enough to the general. My longbeards finished off the last TG and put 2 wounds on his Slann. The Slann still held though.

 

We called it there. On my next turn, the Slann was gonna die, the skinks in combat with the irondrake were probably not going to be steadfast anymore, and the 20ish saurus in combat with my cannon were about to get rear charged by hammerers. He still had another block of 20 saurus on my extreme right flank who were in prime position to attack the irondrakes in his next turn, but that was almost all he had left on the table.

 

I think in my next battle I will swap out the organ gun for the flame cannon. The organ gun has mostly been falling on its face lately. In the last 2 games, I've played a total of 5 turns. In 3 of those 5 turns, it has managed to misfire with one of its dice--after Rune of Forging! So something that should happen 1/36th of the time is instead happening 60% of the time. Not that I expect this statistical anomaly to continue, but this battle with so many skirmishers did highlight that maybe it would be good to include something that doesn't need to roll to hit. Anyway, I haven't used my flame cannon since...before the last dwarf book, so it's high time I give it another shot.

[Munkie]

So I think in my next battle I will run a new list:

 

HEROES: 555/625

141: Thane (General) w/ Great Weapon; runic armor: Rune of Iron, Rune of Stone; talisman: 3x Rune of Warding

 

188: Thane w/ Shield, BSB; Master Rune of Grungni, Strollaz' Rune

 

128: Runesmith w/ Shield, runic armor: Rune of Stone; talisman: Rune of Spellbreaking; Fiery Ring of Thori

 

98: Runesmith w/ Shield, runic armor: Rune of Stone; talisman: Rune of Spellbreaking, Rune of the Furnace

 

CORE: 635/625

245: 15 Quarrelers w/ Great weapons, shields, musician, veteran

 

390: 25 Longbeards w/ Shields, full command; 2x Rune of Slowness

 

SPECIAL: 955/1250

455: 25 Hammerers w/ Shields, full command; Strollaz' Rune

 

150: Cannon w/ Rune of Forging, Rune of Burning

 

100: Gyrocopter w/ Vanguard

 

80: Gyrocopter

 

170: 15 Miners w/ Musician, Prospector

 

RARE: 355/6255

165: Flame Cannon w/ Rune of Forging

 

190: 12 Irondrakes w/ Musician

 

TOTAL: 2500

 

So the general idea is the same as what I've been running, but I subtracted the thunderers, a cannon, and the organ gun to get a larger block of quarrelers, some miners, 2 more irondrakes, and a flame cannon. I just picked up some miner models from a buddy and I wanted to give them a shot. I've also been noticing that 2 cannons have been racking up quite a toll in the past few games, and it doesn't seem fun to have all your big monsters getting shot off the table as soon as they peek their heads around the corner. So this list probably isn't quite as destructive in the shooting phase, but having more dwarf movement shenanigans sounds like fun!

[Munkie]

Got another game in last night, but deary me, not enough of one.

 

Played against skaven on a Pitched Battle. He had:

 

-Greyseer on foot

-Warlord

-Plague priest w/ plague furnace

-Doomrocket (w/ Warplock engineer underneath )

2x 50 Slaves

2x 30ish clan rats

30ish plague monks

25ish giant rats

1 poison mortar

1 warpfire thrower

2x 5 Plague Censors

5 Gutter Runners w/ poison

2x Doom Wheels

1 Warplightning cannon

 

My main takeaway is that Skaven need a new Gdamn book. We spent so much time perusing BRB, Skaven book, FAQs, and compromising every other question (we developed a barter system by the end of the game where we would take turns receiving favorable rulings). Man, are they a clunky army. Every single entry in that book seems to have 3 paragraphs of text at least to explain how it works on the table. Sorry, I've only played against the latest skaven book like 3 times now and I still haven't gotten over how tedious it is. ANYWAY...

 

It was a short game due to the slowish nature of myself and opponent and how much research went into that game. Just 2 turns, so here's the recap:

 

Turn 1 went to the Skaven after an intense roll-off. There was some shuffling forward and then negligable magic (I think 1 plage censor bearer died). My opponent went for a mercifully short shooting phase but even that was scary. The warpfire thrower didn't get to shoot because he moved away from the irondrakes set oppostie (curses!), but the poison mortar got a direct hit and vaped a goodly number of longbeards. The warp lightning cannon undershot my cannon and accidentally killed 10 of 12 irondrakes instead. Oops. I accidentally left the gunner runners some room in the right pocket of my DZ and they ran up and plinked a wound of my flame cannon. The doomfire hit a good chunk of lonbeards but after wounds, 6+/5++, only 2 old fellers died.

 

My turn 1 I pushed the left flank with both gyros to threaten the warplightning cannon (among other things...). The one that vanguarded moved little enough to steam a chunk of one of the slave blocks. My cannon blasted the warplighting cannon. Rook takes Rook! The longbeards went for a long charge against the 4 remaining plague censors because they would overrun right into the clanrats containing the greyseer and the doomfire rocket launcher (rocketeer??) Alas, they fell short and were now looking at a multi-charge from 4 plague censors as well as 30ish plague monks with plague furnace to the front, and another 5 plague cancers to the flank. Yikes. To help even the odds, the flame cannon doused the plague monks and furnace and the game broke down...

 

Question: when a template weapon hits the plague furnace or screaming bell, do I still randomize to hit? Ridden monsters get hit up top and below with templates, but that's a special rule unique to them. No FAQ that I could find (on a 4-year-old 'smart' phone) either. Weird.

 

Anyway, I randomized to hit because he gave me LOS on Cracks' Call (which we also couldn't find an answer for--thus, the barter system) and I failed to wound the furnace. I did kill about 10 of the 30 unbreakable plague monks, though!

 

Skaven turn 2 opened with a veritable vermintide of charges! The slaves on my left flank charged the 2 remaining irondrakes who fled. The slaves redirected into the hammerers and exploded. Busses are cool and all. But they got a steam bath before they went in and hammerers just have too many attacks hitting on 3s w/re-rolls and wounding on 2s. I think I killed about 20 slaves that phase--it was 1 more than enough to break steadfast, and their casualties took them out of general and BSB range...Blamo!! I few dead dwarves, a couple dead skaven, a very very stupid rule.

 

On the other side, all of the afore mentioned units charged the longbeards. The plague censors in front needed a to cover 4" and barely made it. The plague monks and furnace needed to cover 3" and failed, and the plague censors on the flank needed 5" and failed. 2x Rune of Slowness is absolutely insane! I could've faced about 30 Pestilense devotees and a furnace with nearly guaranteed charges, but instead faced 3. They got clobbered. The gutter runners, now with feet planted squarely, poisoned my flame cannon to death!

 

On my turn 2, my miners showed up right behind the clan rats with seer and warplock rocketeer. My irondrakes gave them a brief wave before riding the boxcar Ld test off the table. The hammerers charged the second unit of slaves (this unit untouched). One gyrocopter charged the flank of the seer/rocketeer rats, a pillow fight ensued, and though he lost the static combat game, he stuck due to my BSB being nearby. He was nearby because his unit charged around the plague monks and into the warpfire thrower. This thing has stand and shoot for some reason but misfired but didn't explode. Literally the best possible result for me. The longbeards chopped them up and overran into the flank of the plague monks and furnace. This was especially brutal because I was no longer in contact with the furnace, so wouldn't lose dudes to toughness tests.

 

We ran out of time, so didn't bother to play out the hammerer combat. I wouldn't have killed enough to break steadfast they were going to be Ld 10 re-rollable. Surveying the battle though, it was over. The 20 or so remaining monks were flank charged by longbeards and the runesmith had the str 4 breath weapon. They would have held on because I couldn't direct attacks at the furnace, but there were only going to be a few monks left, with no support incoming.

 

The seer and friends were locked in combat with a copter and about to get rear charged by 15 miners.

 

So we didn't get to play it out, but it wasn't looking good for skaven. I guess that makes me 3.5-0-0 with the new book...